LSQ

Courtney Barnett, on the unpredictability of inspiration: “Sometimes I just sit down on the couch, and I’m watching TV, and a whole idea will come to me in one. I never know what’s gonna happen, and that keeps it really exciting. It’s sometimes very frustrating, when I feel like I don’t know the answer, and…More

The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel remembers feeling the electricity through the floor and the house shaking, the very first time he played an electric guitar. It was at his friend Jeff’s house, on a rig he admits he’s been chasing ever since, and it ignited an obsession whose evolution he discusses in episode 68…More

“When I used to be in Oingo Boingo, I was constantly battling these impulses to go in opposite directions,” says film composer Danny Elfman of his earlier career. “First, I was in weird musical cabaret theater for eight years and suddenly I hear ska music out of England and I say, I want to be…More

Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik discusses the music that inspired him as a kid (The Cars, Springsteen, Petty, the Kinks) and how it taught him the importance of melody and each song telling its own story. We also talk about Goo Goo Dolls’ early days, touring in a van and crashing on couches (he always…More

On the heels of her fantastic new album, Home Video, singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus describes the path that led to it — growing up in Richmond, Virginia, finding a passion for creative writing early on, discovering musical favorites like Yo La Tengo and Broken Social Scene, playing her first gigs at house shows, developing her songwriting…More

Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull talks about early influences (Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse, the Beatles, the classical music his mother played around the house); his evolving approach to songwriting; how his band’s sound has grown to cinematic new heights; what advice he gives young artists who come to him for wisdom about surviving the…More

As a producer, writer, recording artist and entrepreneur, Poo Bear is always searching for collaborators who bring out the best in him, and vice versa. “Do you believe in me?,” he’ll ask an artist who wants to record one of his songs, because for him, the best work arises when there is that mutual passion…More

Tegan and Sara Quinn rejoin the podcast for a fun, roundtable-style conversation with Lili Trifilio from the up-and-coming Chicago indie band Beach Bunny, on the heels of their recent collaboration on a new version of Beach Bunny’s viral hit “Cloud 9.” We talk about how the collaboration – where each chorus features alternate pronouns —…More

Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker delves into his earliest musical endeavors — learning to play his brother’s drums, writing songs on one guitar string, playing with his first band at the high school talent show — and how his attitudes toward songwriting and creativity have evolved since then. He also talks about plans to get…More

Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne on the profound influence of punk rock in his life: “Previous to that, you didn’t know that art was fucked up. To be a musician meant, ‘You’ve gotta know music. If you don’t know music, you don’t belong here.’ When really, some of the greatest musicians would say just the opposite…More